Pyrotechnic sheet material consisting of one or more substrate layers of oxidizing polymeric film having a layer of oxidizable material on at least a portion of at least one surface of the, or each, substrate layer, the polymeric film and the oxidizable material being conjointly capable of reacting together exothermically on ignition, has been described in PCT International Publications Nos WO 90/10611 and WO 90/10724.
The use of the aforesaid pyrotechnic sheet material to ignite a propellant charge has been described in European patent application no 92300835-3, now European Patent publication No. 505024, and hybrid inflators containing gas heating elements comprising the pyrotechnic sheet material have been described in United Kingdom patent application no 9302503.9, now United Kingdom published specification GB 2264772A.
The preferred oxidizable material of the aforedescribed pyrotechnic sheet material comprises a metal selected from the group consisting of lithium, sodium, magnesium, beryllium, calcium, strontium, barium, zirconium, and alloys comprising any one or more thereof, the most preferred metal being magnesium. Advantageously the metal is vapour-deposited on the film by known methods, the amount of metal being preferably substantially stoichiometric at the location of the film underlying the metal.
We have found that in the aforedescribed pyrotechnic sheet material the layer of oxidizable material oxidizes at a slow but significant rate when stored under normal atmospheric conditions. This effectively progressively diminishes the reaction energy available from the material and would seriously reduce the storage period during which reliable performance could be guaranteed. Thus a layer of magnesium as the oxidizing layer of pyrotechnic sheet material will oxidize at a rate of about 3 microns per year from the surface and if the material were used in a vehicle occupant safety restraint system, where a guaranteed storage life of up to 15 years is required, the thickness of magnesium layer required would be &gt;60 microns instead of 15-20 microns required for reaction with the oxidizing polymer. We have further found that the oxidizable material can be advantageously passivated by a dense non-porous layer of metal oxide or a metal which has a dense, non-porous oxide, thereby significantly increasing the storage life of the pyrotechnic sheet material.